A visit to the local High School

What's going on in the world?
This morning I went to the local High School, one of the joys of being a Band Dad, to drop off papers and such from last nights uniform fitting session. I totally appreciate the security, having to be buzzed in and give my name and so forth, I want the people to feel safe. I believe that having places in which we feel safe is one of those rights we all should have. I believe it is a sad comment and a disgrace to all humans that such security is needed for our schools. What are we teaching our youth about other people when we have to have such security in public places. I KNOW what we are teaching them and I DON'T LIKE IT! We are teaching them that people can not be trusted.
It was evident as I interacted with people as I waited for a teacher to come to the office to receive the papers. Yes, she had to come to me, I could not go to her. I knew one of the people in the office, visible to me through the window I was at. I said my hello's to her while the receptionist was busy on the phone; then I had to go through the whole who I was and what I was there for thing. She called the music department and I waited.
Several youth came to the office while I waited and I soon found myself very much in their way. I made a comment about being good at being in the way. Not ONE of those youth had a comment back! It was as if my very speaking was unwanted or at least not welcome. Perhaps they did not know that in the culture I was brought up in when someone makes such a remark it is an open door for conversation or a light ribbing of some sort. I even said good morning to two adults that came and gave me the once over as I waited, they did not reply. I felt like I was not to be trusted because I was an outsider. Yet, I was not a stranger I know many youth and adults who are in that building.
When my business was done I had to sign out, even though I had not moved from the sight of the office. The receptionist did say to me that she was sorry about the the formality of my visit. I told her that I understood and appreciated the security, after all my daughter will be in that building next year. I want her home each night and I don't want to be concerned about her safety while she is at school.
I hope and pray that our churches will never be forced to go to the levels of security that so many other public offices have had to go to. We need the all boats welcome, you are loved, valued and wanted message of the gospel. The soul of our society is sick and in need of healing. May the followers of Christ never forget that they are in this world but not of this world.

Blessings

A recent song by Laura Story asks the question about blessings that I think we need to ask ourselves; what is our blessings are the rough times in our life? Laura asks the question more poetically than I do, but I think it is a question we need to ask ourselves in this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is common for us to count our blessings, yet do we stop to contemplate here our blessings came from?
Some of the things I count highest on my blessing list are the things that took me a long time to accomplish; situations that I saw resolved over years of baby steps and things I learned during life that I know apply in places and situations much different than where I learned them. some of my blessings are little things that I appreciate more as I get older; for example the worn recliner that I sit in as I write this. It isn't anything you would want in your house but I treasure it.
I hope you will take some time to think about what you treasure and where your treasure came from; it just might reveal God at work in your life in places and situations you never thought God was present.

Learning

I would like to know why we have gotten out of the habit of going to church each week and why our culture is so stuck on being entertained?
It seems we work for pleasure. Everything I see advertised is trying to sell me something that will entertain me. A car with all this stuff that will keep me safe while I try to entertain myself with music or phone conversations; restaurants that will also entertain me while I eat; movies; shows; things to do...
I believe we expect this in church too. Somehow church is "boring" unless we are entertained.
What happened to learning? Why did a generation arise that believed that once High School or college was finished that learning had to stop? I thought that the purpose of High School and college was to teach you to learn and to give you a drive, style and awareness of learning.
Maybe it's just me. I can't learn enough and I don't want to stop learning, especially when it comes to God and my relationship with God. I want to keep on learning and growing so I know God better and so I can help others have a stronger relationship with God and other people.

Sinning More

I have been wrestling with the sin of omission this week.
I have been very aware of the places and people I have left hanging in my life. You know; the person you see in the hospital, they go home and you fail to follow up an their progress. The family you see at the Funeral Home, they leave and you never call to see how they are dealing with their grief.
I believe that people without faith deal with this with one of two responses; "oh well" or depression, seeing themselves as totally worthless and incapable of anything even remotely resembling anything close to a decent human response.
People of faith know about grace. Grace is a wonderful thing. In one breath grace convicts you of the area where you need to grow and also tells you you are loved and worth the life of the Son of God. Grace shows me where I need to grow, not what a worthless creature I am. It shows me how to be closer to God, not a hopelessness in how far away God might seem. Grace lets me know that i need to change but also that I am accepted just as I am.
God loves us just as we are and shows us how we can be more like God through our thoughts, words, and actions. How is God working in and through you as a result of the sin in your life?

Sin

So many of us see ourselves as unworthy of God's love. Somehow we believe we have been forgotten by God or have so many mistakes, or our mistakes are so bad that God just doesn't care about us any more.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Look at these words from Romans 9:22-26

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

   “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
   and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”^[i]

 ²⁶ and,

   “In the very place where it was said to them,
   ‘You are not my people,’
   there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”^[j]

 

You can see that God desires us to be in relationship with God, our mistakes do not matter. God has 

called us his people. 

Live in this confidence from scripture

A cell

In my devotion time this morning the author mentioned finding a place apart, a cell, for prayer time. A place where the mind could fall into the heart, is what sticks in my mind. At first I was thinking of a prison cell, a place of isolation, loneliness, and shame. I ate my breakfast and went out to begin moving our snow from last night and pondered what I had studied this morning. I think a cell better fits the image of a cell in my body, more like a cell in the body of Christ. Now remember I am an old dairy farmer here so pens as cells and cells as part of the body are images that my mind can wrap itself around.
The image of the Body of Christ being cells is new to me. I think of legs, feet, arms, eyes exc... but I haven't thought of the Body as a group of cells. Each cell responsible for its part in the body, the body incomplete with out each cell, each cell separate from yet closely linked to all the other cells in the body. Think about how many different kinds of cells there are in the body. Consider how viruses or bacteria affect the body. Think about how cancer affects the individual cells and the body. Think about how an individual cell, a group of cells and the whole body react to an injury. It re-frames my thoughts of the Body of Christ. It also makes visible to me how we don't behave as a body.
On a more personal note, thinking about the idea of a cell as a separate place for prayer, I see how weak my prayer life has become and my need to be called away, separate from the world. Yet I also see myself connected to those who are praying. Wow.

What is real?

I have found myself pondering how it is that I have become as messed up as I am. Let me rephrase that; i have pondered how it is that I have drifted so far from being the servant God created me to be and that I desire to be. I have come to the conclusion that i have not been real with myself.
Movies, books, and TV and I suppose some radio shows of the past were ways to escape reality. Some fantasy is good because it engages our creative side and we need to escape  from the fears of reality sometime and imagine what the world could be, what we could be. I think our culture places too much value on being entertained and escaping reality. We would rather engage our computer and our TV instead of our neighbors. I know, 1 in 5 relationships begin on line today and there is value to some programing on TV. Just cut me a break and listen to what I have to say in general rather than hunting down places to argue with me.
Much of what is available on line and on TV is inconsistent with who God wants us to be. What happens on CSI is not a reflection of real life; it's more of a refraction, a distorted view of reality. Even the so called reality shows are not real. What would happen to our culture if we put even half of our entertainment time into work for Christ? I bet we could change the world. We spend so much of our time seeking to be entertained we have a distorted view of reality. We think what we see on TV or in the movies is how real life should be. We spend more time with the characters on TV than we do with our friends and family. We text and e-mail rather than conversing; we don't know how to develop a relationship, we don't know how to fight fair, we don't know how to debate. We get frustrated and use the poor examples we see in the distorted reality and believe it is the fault of anyone but ourselves.
I am guilty too; there are times I hide. I know that my reality is distorted; and I know it can only be restored through God. That restoration is hard and painful, but I must to it because only God can make it right.